


A Couple of Ticks

by easternCriminal



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Divergence - Time Travel, Family, Gen, Post Season 2, Spoilers for Season 2, Time Travel, back in time, paladins as a family, psychic bonded paladins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-09-19 14:51:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9446192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easternCriminal/pseuds/easternCriminal
Summary: After an unaccounted for variable does their best to assist Voltron during their final battle with Zarkon, Hunk and Lance wake up in the Galaxy Garrison... a few months before Shiro crash landed back on Earth.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, this is my first time playing around with these characters so tell me how you think I did with portraying them! feel free to tell me how I could improve on writing them!

Hunk woke up feeling physically better than he had in… he wasn’t sure when. His muscles held no soreness or tightness of pain, and there was a lack of the sting that accompanied cuts. That would make today a good day, if it wasn’t for the pounding headache throbbing painfully behind his eyes. That and the loud voice yelling and the shuffling of other people. Had they all fallen asleep in one of the common rooms again? Although that voice really didn’t sound like Shiro…

Hunk tiredly reached out to check in on the others, and it was only then that he fully awoke in a sudden flash of panic and terror and proceeded to fall onto the floor from his bed. There was an almost completely empty hole where Yellow should have been, casually rubbing against his mind. Shiro was almost as nonexistent as Yellow was, and Pidge and Keith felt worryingly distant. The only presence he could for sure feel was-

“Hunk.” The word was breathed out and Hunk could feel Lance’s relief wash over him. Hunk cracked open his eyes to the harsh lights to see Lance standing over him wearing… huh, they were both wearing the scratchy Garrison pajamas. Lance helped to heave Hunk to his feet as Hunk attempted to process what was unfolding around them. Most of the other students had already filtered out of the dorm, but without a doubt this was their old Galaxy Garrison bunk beds, complete with the name Lance had etched into one of the posts on the first day. 

“Lance, where are we?”

“I’m pretty sure with is the Garrison.”

“Okay, just checking.” He allowed his cautious and edge feelings to spill over a little Lance. “...where’s Pidge?” At this rate they’d be late to roll call, but they had much more important things to do. “It looks like they already left with everyone else, although something doesn’t feel… right.” Hunk gestured to his head. He glanced back as the last student left the room - maybe a hologram? A Galran in disguise? A Galran hologram? “What the heck is going on here?” 

“I’m not sure.” He furrowed his brows, and Hunk caught a flash of disappointment from him - he’d probably tried to connect with his lion. 

“Right...we…” Hunk’s face scrunched up in concentration as he tried to focus through the headache. “We’d just taken care of the teleduv, and we were going to fight Zarkon. I think maybe we started to fight Zarkon? I definitely remember a red light flooding my window and… and a  _ lot  _ of panic from everyone. After that…” Hunk raised his hands helplessly.

“That sounds about right. Especially the red light.” Lance nodded, contemplatively placing his hand on his chin. 

“Do you think this is a trap? Are we secretly dying under a hallucination by the Galra empire? Or maybe we died and this is purgatory - I always knew purgatory would look like school.” A student passed the doorway and Hunk jumped. 

“This seems kind of elaborate for the Galra. They’re really more stabby-stabby-torture. Lance leaned over and looked at Hunk. “Although, where’d your scars go?” The skin was almost soft and pretty much unblemished. 

“Geez I don’t know - now that you mention it - that knick in your ear is gone too.” Lance’s hand reflexively went up to the side of his head. 

“Dang it, that thing was awesome.” Lance whined, and then reappraised his surroundings. “I think we might genuinely be on Earth, Hunk.”

“Are you sure? I mean, how’d we even get into the Garrison? And what’s going on with the others?” Hunk checked again but his other companions only left a virtually hollow ring through their connection.

“I’m not sure - I can feel them, but only distantly.”

“I guess that really the only thing we can do is wait and watch.” Lance patted Hunk’s shoulder.

“At least we have each other. We’ll need the support for our most dangerous mission to date.” He looked over to the doorway just as Iverson spotted them, a sneer coming across his face. “School.”

After getting reprimanded and berated for their laziness Hunk and Lance huddled together as they prepared for the day. Fear and tension rolled off of one into the other and then back again in a never ending cycle throughout the speedy showers and teeth brushing. As they walked into their first class, one of the few ones that was a blend of mechanics, pilots, and communication officers, and everyone just looked at them and waved and smiled as if they had never left. 

It only started to really sink in what had occurred what had happened when Lance had begrudgingly left Hunk for his pilot classes - he could distantly remember being so pumped for these he could scarcely stand still, but that was before he had flown a giant mecha lion in space. Instead Lance found himself doodling on a piece of scrap paper, sending some feelings of boredom towards Hunk who responded with some sympathy, and therefore it took him about half the class to realize that the discussion today was incredibly familiar. He even recalled the quiz at the end of the class. When at last lunch rolled around he was filled with a sense of urgendy and hurried with his tray over to Hunk.

“Okay man, I don’t know what’s wrong, but you’re setting off all kinds of alarm bells here.” Hunk tapped his head.

“We’re back in time.” Lance blurted out the words.

“Woah, we’re what now? Cuz time travel is borderline impossible and…” He paused before pushing up his sleeves. “...and my scars are gone and we’re back in the Garrison.” Another pause. “Quiznack we went back in time. Do you think Pidge went back in time too?” Lance bit his lip slightly.

“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out.” 

 

Lance and Hunk spent the next few days going over their plans. Hunk grabbed a notebook and they wrote down everything they could remember about what was to come. At this point they hadn’t been very close to Pidge as the team exercises and simulations didn’t start for a week yet, until then they’d have to decide how to tactfully see if they could jog Pidges memory without flat out asking ‘do you remember flying a giant lion in space? Good times’. 

And after that… well, that seemed like a good enough goal for now. Regardless if Pidge remembered or not they were their friend, and if they had to reforge or rediscover that friendship both Lance and Hunk were more than willing to jump through any hoops necessary. 

“So…what do you like to do, Pidge?” All three of them were working on a fake overheated engine, going over protocols and a time limit.

“I like computers mostly.” They were focusing on the control panel, checking the readings as Hunk fiddled with the engine itself. Lance knew for a fact he was taking him time, maybe even just screwing around since this was such a basic exercise that after helping out around the castle so long Hunk ate these kind of problems for breakfast. Sometimes literally.

“Do you like any animals. Like...lions?” Lance threw a glance at Pidge, who’s face remained impassive.

“Not particularly, my mom’s allergic to dogs so we don’t really have any pets.” They glanced up briefly. “I had a fish once, but it died after a week.”

“Oh.” Disappointment flooded both of them. Pidge frowned slightly. 

“Is it cold in here? I just got a chill.”

“It shouldn’t be - our engine is overheating, remember?” Hunk spoke, his voice echoing from where he was half submerged in the engine. “Pass me the philips head?” Lance sifted through the toolbox for a moment. “Thanks.”

“Anyway, I was wondering...what do you like to do after classes?” Lance glanced over at Hunk, who obviously couldn’t nod his head but got an encouraging feeling and so he plowed on. “Because me and Hunk here, we like to hang out sometimes, and since you’re kind of part of our team now, we were both thinking it would be a great chance to get to know each other better.”

“I usually just tap around on my computer, usually with headphones on.” the intent was clear, but Lance plowed through, not entirely unlike how he had when they had first met Pidge - but that had been slow and unsteady steps. This time he knew Pidge, all they needed was for Pidge to get plenty of chances to get to know them.

“That’s great, cuz, like, me and Lance usually just chill anyway and I always wanted to know more about computers.” Hunk spoke up, and Lance swore that Hunk was at this point just tapping on things to waste time.

“Well-”

“Alright, we’ll see you after dinner then!” There were a few banging sounds and suddenly Pidge’s screen lit up green.

“There we go, sorry that was a little tricky, I better read up on my engine types.” Lance let the good humor wash over him and he ruffled Pidge’s hair.

“Good work today, can’t wait ‘til we get to try the simulator. See you tonight!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which I think way too much about how altean times works and there's too much of jerky in it too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your comments! It made me really excited to write this chapter! I'm sorry there's not a ton of dialogue, but I had fun writing it anyway!

Pidge at least seemed to tolerate them for the time being - willing to let Hunk watch them go through some coding stuff while Lace continued to add details to their memory notebook, anything that he could manage- dates, what the food had been, layout of the castle, events, alien types and culture. At lunch they started to sit by Pidge some days, although it wasn’t lost on them how Pidge tended to change screens once they sat down.

“Alright, so, we went wrong with the Porins when we intruded on their ceremony, right?” Lance asked, looking up from the notebook at Hunk. It was their free period and they were trying to make the most of it.

“No, I don’t think it was actually the ceremony.” Hunk replied thoughtfully. “I’m pretty sure it was Keith landing in their holy garden or something. Squashing their squashes.” Lance perked up.

“That’s right! You said you could relate to them getting mad over food!” Lance was grinning at the memory. “Anyway, I was hoping you could help me with something during one of our other free periods…”

oOo

“Are you sure… this is a good… idea?” Hunk panted, dodging another kick before grabbing Lance’s leg and gently tossing him across the room. Lance swung his body around and landed in a crouched position on the mat. Both of their gym clothes were already mostly covered in sweat and were breathing loudly.

“Yeah man.” Lance gulped down air. “If only our memories are back then are bodies are hecka outta shape again.” Lance weakly gestured to both of them. “Exhibit A and B.” 

“I don’t know if I ever was  _ in  _ shape.” Hunk grunted, taking a seat on the lovely floor. The training rooms at the Garrison had once seemed imposing to Hunk, but they just seemed low tech after the Castle of Lions. The didn’t have a gladiator to train with, so this was their best option at the moment.

“Alright.” Lance carefully stood up, stretching a bit. “Let’s go.”

“What?! Shouldn’t we get a longer break?” Hunk exclaimed, but stood up nonetheless, running a hand through his sweaty hair. “Okay, I’m ready.” 

Hunk ended up doing more weights than actual running in the work out room, mostly because he didn’t enjoy running that much, and if there’s one thing he knew for sure was that in a handful of months he’d be getting more running in than he ever wanted to. He focused more on getting stronger. Back at the Castle he had struggled to help Coran with repairs many a time simply because he wasn’t born with Altean super strength and it would be easier if he could at least somewhat hold his own. 

They also both spent a lot of time at the shooting range, recalling how they both had long range bayards and the last thing they wanted was to lose their skill. Lance managed to hit the target almost unfailingly, but Hunk was coming along at least distantly, especially since he was used to a much heavier gun with way more of a kickback than the training rifles gave. Occasionally Pidge would tag along and watch the two of them with calculating eyes.

Something had seemed to be bothering her lately.

“..I don’t know, it seems like it’s safe to me.” Lance scrolled through the information. Their current team exercise was to try and tell how safe a planet was when given information they could compare to Earth.

“Don't’ be ridiculous - the atmosphere is thin enough that one step out there and the planets sun would burn right through anything we’re wearing.” Pidge interrupted. “We might be able to go out under the cover of night, but it will still be incredibly cold.”

“Well then we can just turn on our warmers for our suits, right?”

“Lance, suits don’t have internal heaters that can go up that hot. They're too bulky and have too large of a probability that they’ll expel Carbon Dioxide into the suit, suffocating you.” Pidge rattled off. Hunk sent a feeling of caution at Lance. He had been thinking of the paladin uniforms.

Pidge shuddered

“Are you sure you’re okay Pidge? Are you cold?” Hunk asked, marking the planet as unexplorable and bringing up the next one. Pidge shook her head and grabbed the information tablet.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine - let’s focus on the assignment.”

Both Hunk and Lance we’re having a hard time adjusting back to Earth time. All in all the length of Earth day and night cycles versus Altean one’s wasn’t too different, definitely not enough to cause any major setbacks or misunderstanding while they had been on the Castle of Lions beyond arguing which translated to a longer period of time - it was actually the week cycles that had thrown them for a loop. 

The Altean word for day was a quintent, the prefix quint- meaning five. Therefore there were five quintent’s in a week, or a spicolion movement. It actually made sense once you got your head around it, counting in five just was more logical - you can list off each day of the week on one hand. A good rounded number to work with. On the ship everything revolved around the spicolion movement. Things were done on certain days of the week cycle and repeated with each start of a new cycle. To be entirely honest it only took a few weeks, a month tops, for all the paladins to acclimate to the new time system to the point where they rarely used Earth time. Really, 20 vargas in a quintent made more sense that 24 hours in the day - not much of a difference, but it did round out the time quite nicely.

So trying to adjust back to seven day weeks was somewhat of a struggle. For the past three weeks Hunk had come up to Lance shouting ‘HUMPDAY!” on Tuesday, Sunday, and Friday respectively before giving up on celebrating humpday entirely after receiving many an odd look from the other cadets. Most of the other measurements were easy enough to shake, although both of them tended to use a tick over a second, especially Lance who had always enjoyed how much quicker and sharper the word was to the word second. 

“I want a calendar.” Hunk said as the two of them were lying around their bunk bed, trying to get some extra credit work finished for an assignment they’d missed the other day. They’d been so busy in the training room both of them had lost the time.

Lance just sent a questioning feeling at Hunk.

“I’d like to work out what spicolion movement it is - I want to try and keep track in both Earth and Altean time so when we’re on the Castle of Lions again it won’t take so long to adjust  - do you know how many times I forgot to check up on entire sections of the engine because I forgot that it was another new movement? Too many, man.” Hunk frowned.

“...well, I don’t think that we can get one here. The school store is more, like, candy bars. Which is honestly the best thing to sell in a school full of teenagers.” But it wouldn’t quite facilitate Hunk’s desire, and Hunk was hoping to get a decent one - maybe one with pictures of Earth or something that he could stuff in his pockets and take with him when the time came to leave again.

“It’s alright, I had just been thinking.” Hunk replied smoothly, but Lance could feel his disappointment leaking through their connection, and he gave a roguish grin.

“Hey, I didn’t say it was impossible.” Lace replied, and Hunk got a very scared look on his face.

“This is such a bad idea.” Hunk finally said when they were in the clear. They had just snuck out of the dorm rooms, after curfew, and were currently on their way to the nearest gas station, walking on foot. Pidge had caught them at some point during their sneak out and had, after sizing them up and realizing that both parties were breaking curfew for their own reasons told them they had five minutes with the security system off to get to where they needed to be.

Hunk almost bawled when they made it to vegetation. It just… the grass, the trees… He had stopped and picked up a pile of wild flowers that were growing in a bunch and simply inhaled their scent, eyes water. Lance had climbed a tree for the first time in far too long, enjoying the familiar way he could still scale the bark. They made steady progress in the direction that Hunk’s small, dorm made GPS said the nearest gas station was, and Lance looked up at the stars. 

They looked different form here. For so long he had been surrounded by them, and it felt like it had been a while since he had looked up and seen  _ his  _ stars.  _ Earth’s  _ stars. Someone once said that there are no stars in space, only suns. When you’re flying through space they’re never constant, you can’t make constellations when the probability of you seeing the stars lined up in the specific way again was so slim. From here he could make out orion’s belt, the way that the stars blended into an almost line. 

The gas station was small, only a couple of cars parked, and a single car refilling their tank. Hunk walked in, soaking in all the Earth items. Classic human earthling items, classic candy bars and knick knacks. Bad jerky, good jerky, overpriced jerky. There were some of those gumball machines lined up along with one that held little toys you could put on the end of your pencil. In fact there were rows where you could find your name on a pencil, your name on a license plate, your name on a necklace, your name on a piece of jerky. As long as your name wasn’t spelled to oddly or too unique. One time Hunk’s grandpa had bought all the grandkids a pencil with their names on it and, with a humorous smile on his face, handed Hunk one that said ‘Hank’ in bold black letter.

He was pretty sure he still had it at home.

“Wow.” Lance breathed, overlooking the merch. He stopped for a moment to just take in the sight, and then lunged forward, stepping down the aisles and looking, eyes wide and amazed. Hunk stood over some slingshots that were carved to have the faces of wolves right above the handle. There was a decent amount of space themed stuff due to the the gas stations close proximity to the Galaxy Garrison, but Hunk looked over the star charts and exotic stories of little green men to the row of magazines behind it.

“Hey Lance, come over here!” He called, and in a moment there was Lance, leaning over his shoulder.

“Hey! I never got to read this issue before we left!” Lance exclaimed, picking up a comic book and skimming through it before tucking it in a basket he had picked up at some point, lying down next to small items. Hunk picked up a few other comics, skimming through them as well before putting them back. He did grab a Taste of Home magazine and slip it in though.

Hunk grabbed a small national park calendar that showed a landscape from a different park for each months and placed it in the basket. They spent a little longer milling around and taking in how… normal everything about the place was. Lance was looking to see if they had some spices maybe he could buy without Hunk noticing and take back, take them all the way to the Castle of Lions with them and get some tastes that came from earth all the way out there. 

He was going down and uncapping the the small bottles, not caring to read the labels because they didn’t mean much to him, even after all the time he spent with Hunk. He was mostly just searching for a familiar scent. Lance picked up one with a small blue label and inhaled deeply.

It just seemed ridiculous. To cry in the middle of a gas station, crouched on the floor over a bottle of sea salt. It didn’t even smell  _ that _ much like home. But the entire situation was ridiculous. They had spent so long trying to get home, and now that they had by some miracle made it back, they were leaving again. They had to start all over again. He knew they couldn’t shirk their duties to the universe, and it was bizarre because in space he only dreamt of home, but here he only dreamt of space. He missed his lion and the stars. He missed Coran and Allura. He missed Keith and Shiro. He wanted to be back up there. But at the same time he never wanted to leave his planet again. His desires and wishes were tearing him in half. 

Hunk bustled over to him, second hand tears washing down his face and gathering LAnce into his arms in a comforting manner along with gentle shoosh sounds, even occasionally attempting some shaky words of comfort in Altean.

oOo

At the Galaxy Garrison Pidge found water marks on their laptop. The looked curiously for the source, and found that for reasons they couldn’t place it had been from their own eyes.

oOo  
  


Keith had been on his roof, staring out at the stars, as if they would present what he desired to him. He had been lost in thought, considering starting to try and find the source of the energy that had been bothering him for so long, and instead found tears trailing down his face.

oOo

In his cell, surrounded by purple, purple, and black, Shiro ran a hand through his hair, trying not to look at his hands, anywhere but at his dirty, bloody hands. He should cut his hair soon, or attempt to, it was getting a little ridiculous. He tore a piece of his already torn up shirt into a strip and tied back his hair for now when suddenly his face felt cold. In an almost panic his hands touched his face and returned wet. 

He was crying. He couldn’t remember the last time he had cried. Why was he crying? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment or to add anything that you're hoping will appear in future chapters, I'm open for suggestions! Feel free to chat me up in the comments! love your guys!
> 
> EC


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I made up a character on the spot and like them a lot. They might turn up again so that's cool. Also obstacle courses.

Fun fact - getting out of a place is easier than getting back in. Debatably. There were a lot of factors that went into it. Bottom line is that when Lance and Hunk were held at gunpoint and then shortly after ushered to a higher ups office Hunk was glad they had decided to stick their stuff in his side pockets on their back because otherwise they would have definitely been taken away by now.

Ms. Aerogen was scary. There was no other way to put it. Lance and Hunk had been face to face with the number one destroyers in pretty much the entire flipping universe and still they were both sending waves of panic and fear at each other as they sat down in front of her desk. She was wrinkled and old with sharp eyes. She looked over her glasses, those only old people seem to have that had a chain on them. Lance was bumping his leg up and down with nervous energy and Hunk was doing his best to keep his dinner down. There were countless tales about her. Her ability to comprehend mathematics was off the charts. Her discipline was notoriously cold and at times odd. She was often in charge of roundy teams that were being sent of crafts and the last thing you wanted was to piss her off.

She was looking at both of them with a very pissed off face.

“What made you two cadets,” Her voice curled around the word cadets to ensure they were aware of their low rank. “...think it was a good idea to sneak out of our facility?” She quirked up an eyebrow and Hunk shuddered.

“Well, uh, you see, we wanted some… air. Yeah, some good fresh air. Wanted to clear our minds for our classes. Good classes. Love our classes. Wanted to think about how to solve the old space suit heater conundrum.” Lance prattled off, attempting to draw Ms. Aerogens’ fire by allowing words to just vomit out of his mouth. What was he even saying? The  _ what  _ conundrum? “Cuz, you know, space is pretty cold and-”

“It was me!” Hunk blurted out, eyes wide and appearing just as surprised as anyone else that he’d spoken. “I… I forced Lance to sneak me out. I was all me.”

“No!” Lance shouted, lurching forward in his seat and shooting an arm out in front of Hunk.  “It was actually all me! Hunk didn’t even know we were leaving - I told him we were going to the the kitchens. This was all my fault!” 

Ms. Aerogen looked at them with an… amused smile? Lances argument died on his tongue as she watched the two of them both try and take the blame for the other as though it was a good tennis match.

“I can appreciate spunks,” She began. “...and your camaraderie to your friends.” Small glimmers of hope filtered through their connection. “However, I can’t help but wonder what you so desperately had to do outside the facility.” When neither of the two responded she continued on. “Regardless I can’t just let this go. I have devised what I deem to be a… just punishment.” 

Lance and Hunk squirmed in their seats as her boney hands disappeared in her desk rooting around. Her eyes glanced up at them for a brief moment sending shivers down both their spines.

“Please place your hands above my desk. McClain your right, Garrett, your left.”

Panic shot through Hunk and  his hand began to shake, hovering over the desk. Would she chop off their hands? And then transplant them on the others? Or would they have to wander around with a handless stump  for a couple of months before they could steal Galra tech and give them a hand like Shiros?! Can you even fly an alien lion left handed?!

Lance sent a firm wave of calm and Hunk took a deep breath and stilled his hand, re accessing the actual probability that an Earth school would chop of a child’s hand.

Ms. Aerogen finally found whatever she had been looking for and withdrew a pair of handcuffs, enclosing one on each of their hands with the cold metal, leaving enough room it was just shy of biting into their wrists. Lance’s curiosity was piqued, and my moved his hand around slightly, Hunk’s going loose and allowing him to do so.

“I’ve heard from your officers that you both have been spending a lot of time in the training rooms recently. If you want to be forgiven for breaking 46 rules,”

“46?” Hunk squeaked, and glanced at Lance. Ms. Aerogen had a wry smile on her face.

“...you will have to complete our obstacle within fifteen minutes.” Neither of the boys were sure what to think about that as they were lead to where the course must be - they’d never seen, nor heard of it before this point and this was all new territory. 

The course looked, well, it was pretty impressive by Earth standards. It started with climbing a wooden wall, followed by a death crawl. After that there was a set of rocky, intentionally uneven steps that led up to a set of monkey bars. After that was a climb up a mesh ladder that lead to a wooden bridge at least fifteen feet off the ground leading to a set of ropes hanging down and then a final sprint through mud.

Hunk took a sharp intake of breath before calming himself down and rolling his shoulders, preparing himself just like lance was. Their closely connected hands made it a struggle to stretch properly but Lance was doing his best. 

“Go!” One of the instructors that had followed them out called, and Lance and Hunk took off at a dead sprint towards the wall, feet moving as a perfect mirror of each other. They both tore down any mental blocks they had at all and completely opened themselves up to each other , reaching towards the ropes as one and scaled the wall in a smooth motion, leaping over it and immediately falling into an army crawl. 

They were the legs of Voltron - they required extreme precision and to always be in complete tandem. Ideally, all of Voltron should be in tandem, but for the legs they needed to know when to support the other, when to move and when to wait. How to walk smoothly and when it was time to run. Lance slowed down just enough that Hunk could keep up with him on the crawl, and when they emerged the dashed up to the bars.

The two of them reached out with their outer arms first, and then brought up their joined hands, progressing from one bar to the next in sync. In fact, the entire course came easy to them, as they had thought previously - this was only impressive by Earth standards. The training courses Allura and Coran had sometimes made them go through were much more difficult and had a significantly higher chance of death.

By the time they started climbing the mesh they were both beginning to wear down however. And Hunk had to catch Lance from falling once, gripping the rope tightly with an arm and heaving his body back up using their handcuffed hands. It was a good thing that Lance was so lightweight. They ran across the wooden boards and Lance could feel Hunk’s hesitation to grab the ropes beginning. Just him thinking too hard about jumping, over thinking everything, and he sent his own confidence at Hunk, and when they leapt their feet left the ground at the same time.

The last dash across the mud was actually… kind of fun. They slid a bit, and after Lance lost his feet out from under him for the third time Hunk just grabbed his legs and carried him bridal style, Lance’s arm in an odd position due to the cuffs and crossed the finish line, both laughing too much and just the picture of a couple of high school teenagers. 

The supervisors were just… staring at them. One had his mouth slightly open. And Ms. Aerogen had a single eyebrow raised. 

“What’s the time?” Lance asked as Hunk put him back on the ground. 

“Ahm.” One of the supervisors seemed to remember himself. “9:47.” Hunk and Lance high fived.

“I must admit, that was rather impressive.” Lance elbowed Hunk in the side, grinning. “Your teamwork is something that I strive for in all of the our space programs.” Ms. Aerogen gave the two of them a nod. “You are free to return to your dorm - and don’t let me catch you sneaking out again.” She turned and left, sweeping out of the obstacle course with a finesse that seemed almost Allura-esque, and Lance and Hunk both got the feeling that she was smiling despite her face remaining impassive. 

The rest of the supervisors left behind her, a few whispering to each other and sending a couple of glances Hunk and Lance’s way, but they mostly ignored it as they tried to get as much mud off their clothes as they could and Hunk double checked that their supplies was still in good condition. 

“That was so cool!” Hunk whispered to Lance on their way back, shaking his fists up and down, eyes wide and shining. “I haven’t felt that close to a Voltron state since before we got here!” He continued. 

“Dude, we totally rocked that obstacle course - told it who’s boss.” Lance replied, nodding as they entered their dorm room and tried to be as quiet as possible as they moved towards their bunk. Hunk sent a glance towards the clock and had to stifle a groan - he had forgotten to think about how little time all of this would leave for actual sleep. Maybe he’d just sleep in his clothes tonight.

Lance leapt to the top bunch and, a second after his head hit the pillow he was fast asleep.

oOo

Pidge shivered violently, looking from side to side in… not panic. Something else. It bordered on panic, but it was more like adrenaline. But no one had caught them up on the roof yet and as far as they could tell there was no reason for them to be so on guard. They took some deep breaths and, there was that feeling again. It had been going on and off for the past few weeks. An almost, intrusiveness in their own skull but, it didn’t feel intrusive, it felt familiar and comfortable.

But hecka weird.

They turned their radio transmission up louder, trying to drown out the feeling. They had to focus on the task at hand. There was a flutter of triumph in their heart, blossoming from nowhere, having nothing to do with what they were currently doing.

oOo

The Champion took deep breaths, the crowd roaring around him and drowning out himself in their cries. His hand was sticking out of the other side of his opponent's chest, his flesh one gently touching their back. Shiro listened to his opponent take a few shaky, painful breaths.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, and wondered if the alien could hear him above the din of the Galran’s, but after another labored breath the alien - a furry thing with a large muzzle - brought it’s own hand onto Shiro’s back. 

“Thank you.” It whispered, then let out a terrifyingly wet cough. “You have helped me to escape this place.” Shiro closed his eyes briefly, steeling himself, and when he reopened them he tore his hand out of the alien and allowed it’s body to hit the dusty floor, crumpled like a rag doll, it’s chest unmoving. 

Shiro left the stadium with the Galran’s crying out behind him, keeping steely eyes on the guards and soldiers that led him back to his cell. It was only after they left that he allowed his face to crumple. He dry heaved his already empty stomach for a few moments, feeling the panic and sorrow and resignation set it. The claustrophobia that he would never leave here. 

He thought back to those he had killed and… and he felt  _ jealousy.  _ And maybe that scared him the most.

He scrunched his eyes shut and tried to get the cries of pain out of his head and… and suddenly he got a subtle, small, calming feeling. It wasn’t much, but it was a small flame flickering weakly in the cold, dark place that was the shell of himself. And he clung to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! We start getting to *some* stuff next chapter which should be interesting! Although I do also have another fic idea so I might attempt to juggle two fics soon, we'll see. Anyhoo feel free to chat me up in the comments, tell me what you think, what you hope will happen, and have a great day!
> 
> EC


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a bridge chapter to go to where we're going, y'know? Not quite the best chapter yet but a necessary one.
> 
> -also, my first time writing Pidge's POV so feel free to tell me how I can improve with them

Keith eyed the map in front of him, his eyes steely as if staring at it long enough would make it simply reveal the next part of the puzzle.

Over the past few months he’d been lost and wandering -. The small shack was really all he had at this point, after he had become a Galaxy Garrison dropout with no intentions of making amends or going back to anywhere with such a confining atmosphere. It was impossible for him to swallow his pride and stand in line there, knowing that… that there were people missing. Out here underneath the floorboards there was still the food that had been stocked there so long ago, protected from animals that may have investigated the small building in the nights.

Only animals would have approached the old shack, left abandoned for the3 past few years. There was seldom any people this far in the desert. Keith was unsure if that was a blessing or a curse.

For the past few months he had an odd feeling, like something was called for him, whispering his name across the sands. He had been trying to follow it to it’s source, using an old radio to find abnormal waves and strange rumblings penetrating his life. But all in all the progress had been slow. 

Until a few weeks ago.

He just woke up one day and it was like his brain was in overdrive, banging on all cylinders. He had looking at his map, brain buzzing and humming, going a million miles per second, and made marks all over it. Later he was worried he’d just screwed himself over, ruined all of his hard work, but after checking a few he realized they were all correct. Nothing had ever been quite like that, but most times now when he ht a roadblock now he just had to spend a little letting his brain dwell on it before he knew, with varying degrees of sureness, how to continue on.

Keith raised a hesitant marker up to the map - and then jerked his hand down. It would come to him later. 

He turned and looked at the small shack. When he first arrived he had thought it felt almost cozy here, alone and by himself. But now it just felt rather empty and quiet.

oOo

Hunk poked at the… he supposed you could call them scrambled eggs. If you’re stretching the definition to a rubbery yellow substance. He eventually dashed some pepper on and smothered it with ketchup in an attempt to make them edible before bravely taking a bit. 

At first he thought the alarm and caution was his own and and spat out the ‘eggs’, but when Lance slid into the seat in front of him, sending the panic off in waves, he calmed back down considerably and took another bite of his breakfast.

“What’s wrong?” Hunk asked around the mouthful of food, and Lance kept looking around them, frowning, his caution was already dimming and Hunk wondered if maybe some of the powerful feeling he’d just felt had been from someone else after reassessing that Lance was only mildly on edge before Lance began to talk.

“Hunk, do you get the feeling like someone’s watching us?” Lance whispered, leaning in. Hunk paused, trying to check to see if the hairs on the back of his neck were raised, and then glanced around the cafeteria. At least half of the eyes were trained on them. And whispering. And dear goodness how he hadn’t not noticed that literally everyone was staring at him earlier?

“What did you do?” He asked Lance, and Lance’s attention snapped back to the present - apparently whatever that bizarre surge of emotion had been Lance had felt it too. 

“I didn’t do anything. I think. Most likely. I’d blame Keith but he isn’t here.” Lance replied, looking around. “I wonder if…”

“What did you two do last night?” Pidge slammed their lunch tray down, looking at the two of them very critically. 

“It was Keith!”

“Nothing!” The two shouted at the same time, and Pidge adjusted their glasses, glare unrelenting. 

“Do you have any idea what people are saying?” 

“No…?” Hunk ventured. “I mean, people are whispering, and we did several things last night, so it could really be any of them.” 

“They’re saying you’re aliens.” 

“Haha, psh, no. Don’t be ridiculous H-Gunderson, aliens are, like, not a thing. AT all. Don’t exist. Like unicorns if unicorns didn’t actually exist.” Lance replied, sliding his hand over his lunch tray, back and forth a few times nervously before knocking down his milk, which leaked onto his own questionable eggs. “Shoot.”

“Or that you two have been replaced with pod people. I heard at least two suspect you’re werewolves and one is dead set that you’re vampires.” Pidge… sent. Yes, Hunk realized that it definitely had the feeling of intentional pushing of emotions that Lance often did to Hunk, especially in the past few days, and that the other paladins had done before the two of them had gone back in time. It was weak, and unsteady, but Pidge sent a feeling of sternness. “Now tell me. What did you two do last night? And what is going on?”

“We just went out and bought some stuff at a gas station. Like food.” Hunk quickly said, waving his arms around in a placating gesture. 

“And then…?”

“And then we got caught and had to do an obstacle course - and we totally shredded it like pros!” Lance raised his hands in the air in triumph. Pidge looked at him for a while, eventually breaking eye contact. 

“I guess that makes sense. Most of the crazy stuff has to do with you two being secret super soldiers or something.” There was a small pause. “But…” They seemed to wrestle with themselves for a bit. “I need to talk to you guys later.” Pidge glanced around the room at the multitude of people staring at the three of them. “After dinner maybe? Try and meet me on the roof tonight.” They stood up and walked away, and Lance and Hunk exchanged curious and worried looks with each other. 

Neither really cared about their reputation at this point, by in two months or less they would be out of here, but if it was bothering Pidge then it was a problem. 

oOo

Pudge paced around their empty room. It was dinner, so everyone else would be out eating before tucking in for the night, but they were second guessing them self right now about whether or not they really wanted to go through with this. They just couldn’t shake it. The coincidences were lining up too much. Compare Lance and Hunk’s recent behavior to some of what they’d been catching on radio waves, the odd feelings, and the strange dreams… 

As the kids started to filter in and the light went out Pidge gathered their stuff, pages and notebooks, pieces of equipment, and hurried up to the roof. They set up as usual every night and then sat down, facing the door to the roof, waiting. Their stomach was in knots as they watched it slowly open.

“Pidge?” The voice was whispered, almost comically as Lance basically slunk onto the roof, dressed in casual clothes. Hunk followed behind him, attempting to be just as stealthy but, well, not quite succeeding. 

They took a deep breath, and tried to steady their thoughts. Organize and compartmentalize. 

“I’ve been having these dreams.” A beat of silence. “They always feel connected. When I wake up they disappear but…” Pidge grabbed their notebook. “...I’ve been writing down snatches of them. To try to remember. In all of them I’m looking for the missing crew from the Kerberos mission.” Pidge resisted the urge to tell who they were, not yet. Prioritize your thoughts. Stay on the current subject. “To do that I go into space. But I never find them. You two are always there though, and there’s two others but I can’t grasp at who they are by the time I wake up. And there's aliens too. Lots of aliens and…” Pidge took a deep breath. Might as well grab the tinfoil hat now. “I’m starting to think that maybe we met in another life because I remember things about you that I never could have known, or should know. And I keep getting these feeling like, when you guys exchange glances and I need you two to be honest with me.” Lance and Hunk were silently watching, and from the back of Pidges mind they could practically feel them tossing feeling back and forth with each other. “Are we secretly aliens?” Pidge prepared for, well, they weren’t sure what. Laughter? Shunning? Maybe an in depth explanation on why their hypothesis was wrong (although Pidge already knew and was aware of the multiple reasons of how it couldn’t be true).

“Pidge,” Hunk was the first to talk. There was no laughter, his face was completely serious and Pidge could feel caution and love radiating off of him - how they could Pidge didn’t know why but they just  _ could _ . “...Lance and I need to tell you something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you're enjoying the story! AS always feel free to tell me any hopes you have for the story or what you enjoyed - comments keep me going! 
> 
> I hope you're day is amazing!
> 
> EC


	5. What Next

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I update. It's a miracle, really.

“The Paladins and their lions have an intimate connection. You are both vulnerable to one another. As you bond with your lion you will each become a half of a whole together. And, when you form Voltron, that same vulnerability will be there - it is the only way to smoothly connect and coordinate Voltron. You are each one fifth of a bigger picture.” Coran rattled off, the screens around him showing pictures of Voltrons and of its lions.

“So then we’re more like one tenth of a whole?” Pidge asked, raising their hand slightly and adjusting their glasses.

“Yes, I suppose that’s one way to think of it.” Coran stroked his mustache, nodding. “Alright, now we’re going to attempt the old mind meld exercise, except this time the settings are going to be turned down. You’ll have to rely on your Voltron bond to connect your pieces.” 

“Without being in Voltron?” Shiro asked, quirking a brow.

“Yes. When you are in Voltron the five of you share quintessence, and not all of it is returned. Eventually you should all share enough quintessence that you can feel each other at all times. This makes a game of ghambits hard since everyone can cheat.” Coran replied, smiling. 

“Alright.” Shiro nodded. “Let’s form Voltron.” There was a pause and Shiro glanced around to see all faces trained on him. “What?”

“You didn’t say it.” Hunk replied.

“Say what?”

“‘I’ll form the head.’” Lance replied, deepening his voice dramatically.

“I - what?”

“You always say it.” Keith added.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s your thing now.” Pidge replied, and Shiro let out a chuckle, which evolved into a full blown laugh. 

“Than Hunk should say ‘I’m a leg!’ each time?”

“I don’t see why not.” Hunk replied, closing his eyes. “Imma leg!” He cried as his lion popped up as a hologram in front of him, drifting towards the middle. 

“Alright, alright.” Shiro closed his eyes. “I’ll form the head.”

 

Shiro gasped for air, startling out of his dream and feeling it slide through his fingers, his brain discarding it leaving him with only the vaguest ideas of what it had been about. It had felt calm, and he thought Keith was maybe in it. Perhaps he was just getting homesick. The scream that had awoken him was not his own but from the cell across from his, and he watched as the Galra reached in and extracted a young creature. It was young, and short, and seemed to be a mix between a lizard and an amphibian with feet too big for it and a small tail. 

It was thrashing wildly in the Galra’s arms, some kind of… spikes? Fringe? On it’s head poking straight up and it let out desperate hiss and clacking noise, both sets of eyes wide and frightened. 

Maybe Shiro was still feeling soft from his dream because suddenly the thought of such a young creature going to be slaughtered hurt his soul just the like the first time he had ever seen it happen and he sprung from his bed and gripped his bars and yelled at the Galra in the butchered version of Galran that the prisoners used. The small alien looked towards Shiro with fear and shook his head slightly but one of the Galran’s grabbed him by the fringe on his head and thrust his head down as they half led, half dragged him away in the direction of the arena. 

Shiro screamed after it until his voice was hoarse.

 

“So…” Pidge squinted, sizing both Hunk and Lance up. Then shivered again as the vague notion of an outside emotion brushing up against them came and went. “... _ if  _ everything you said was true, and  _ if  _ I believe you... “ Pidge glanced off to the side, half remembered dreams flitting through their head and lining up flawlessly with the entirely too incredible tale that had just been described. “How long do we have? And what’s the gameplan?”

“We have about seventeen spicolion movements.” Pidge glanced vacantly at Hunk, who turned a shade redder. “That’s about two months and a half.” Pidge nodded, and fiddled with their glasses.

“And this was our plan. Pretty much.” Lance injected. “I mean, we eventually want to find a way to talk to Keith, but that’ll be harder.”

“No, I mean, the blue lion is literally like, right next to us basically, right?” Pidge questioned, and when Lance and Hunk nodded was relieved that they had recalled the color of Lance's lion correctly. Their head was starting to pound from trying to recall this much information that for some reason was just out of reach. “So why don’t we just go and get it?”

“Uh… well.. You see…” Lance, glanced over. “Tell her, Hunk.” 

“It’s uhhhhh, it’s because… because e have to wait for Shiro!” Hunk responded. “Who knows where he is right now? Like, has he escaped? We don’t know.” Pidge nodded. “Plus as soon as we awaken the castle Zarkon will know where we are and then we’re screwed without Shiro anyway.” Lance stared at Hunk for a moment. “What?”

“I totally forgot that. Dang, good thinking Hunk.” Lance patted him on the back, smiling warmly. 

“So we need to find Keith then.” Pidge replied, trying to plan out the next two months in their head. 

“Yeah, and it’s going to be harder to get out this time since we got royally busted last time.” Hunk replied, then looked around nervously. “Like we will be again if we don't keep it down up here.” Hunk shushed them a little. Pidge closed their eyes for a brief moment, the pressure in their head building up further. This as insane, but they really did believe Hunk and Lance. They had to.

“Okay so, I’ll start working on ways to get through the Garrison’s paper mache firewalls - it shouldn’t take me more than a few days, tops. Few hours if I really go for it.”

“We know.” Lance said, and with such sureness that it hit Pidge all at once how much Hunk and Lance must have known them from whatever time and place Hunk and Lance had come from. 

“So…” Pidge began somewhat meekly. “...then you guys have known…” They gestured to their laptop. Hunk and Lance’s smiles vanish, and at the peripheral of their mind Pidge could feel sorrow and shame and deep seated worry roll off of them.

“We know Pidge. And we’re going to find your family.” And Pidge could  _ feel _ the sureness in Lance’s voice, and the Determination that was coming off of Hunk and waves and Pidge believed them. It was an odd feeling, they had never known how alone they were feeling until sudden there were these faint whispers of others touching them. Pidge looked at the two of them and deep in their soul, perhaps the same deep part that could connect with Hunk and Lance, that had brought the faint memories and the dreams, that part told Pidge that they weren’t alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> been pretty busy with school and doing art stuff (the-east-art.tumblr.com or check out my Youtube Becky Weber) and have put this on the backburner. With any luck I'll start working on my original stories which sadly will mean that this will once again be a backburner story but this chapter has been half finished for several months so I decided to finish it and put it out there :D Please tell me if you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you for the read and I hope you all have a lovely day!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please tell me what you think, how I can improve, and anything you hope to see in future chapters!
> 
> Have a lovely day ;)
> 
> EC


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